3DVIA® - 3DVIA

Here is an application of our 3D technology that we have had almost too much fun putting together.  Welcome 3Dcollage, our new picture application for Facebook that will let you overlay 3D models from 3DVIA.com on your favorite pictures to create new “3D mashups”.  These new mashups can be published to your profile or, even better, sent to your friends Facebook profiles.

Why would you want to do this?…Not only is 3Dcollage is a great way to dress up your Facebook profile, but it allows you to create stunning new images in a way not currently possible. You can position and re-position 3D models over 2D images in a natural way, making use of 3D effects such as lighting, sizing, and rotation to create your own Facebook works of art.

Check out these 2 pictures as a very simple demonstration of what you can do with the same model over a picture.   Models in 3Dcollage can be easily placed, spun and positioned in anyway that you want.

Now I am not making any political statements, but I found an interesting demonstration of the 3Dcollage idea on the campaign ‘08 group on Facebook using a Barack Obama model found on 3DVIA.com.

Interested in trying it for yourself?  It’s easy to do…first, login in to your Facebook account (Facebook accounts are free) and then in 3Dcollage,

1. Upload your picture - or search for one on Flickr
2. Import a 3D model from the 3DVIA.com library
3. Position it any way you like on your picture
4. Click the camera icon to publish it to your profile or send it to your friends
5. Rinse & Repeat.

What are you waiting for, create your first 3Dcollage right now!

Popularity: 72% [?]

It’s really great when you toss something out there and people start using it the way they think it should be used! One just never knows what people will come up with.

mvcomputers has provided us with a great example of thinking ‘Inside the box’.

Some of you may have skipped right over an odd little box all by itself that looks like this in big mix of things:

Not only is it kinda’ boring, it has the title “Battle Cruiser”, which makes one cringe to think of trying to speed across the galaxy in a black, speckled brick.

However, for the curious there is much to be found! A closer look will reveal some instructions…

…and if one dutifully zooms inside the box…

…the reward is huge! How truly excellent - to use the INSIDE of the box to create one’s own finite galaxy. That is SMART. As long as you stay ‘Inside the box’, you can have a blast checking out this cool cruiser.

For the really, really observant folks (which I was not until I went to write this post and was grabbing some images), this cruiser is not singular. As you press in for the attack, you’ll also have to deal with several companion cruisers ready to minutely particulate anything you might be riding in…

There are several hanging around, so do be careful! My mousing is not precise enough to get super close, but the hangers on look like this when increased in size (the use of the term blown up might be confusing in this context).

So, today’s lesson to be learned is: have fun! try crazy things! make everybody wonder how you did that! make everybody wonder WHY you did that!

Popularity: 56% [?]

Video: 3D Tour of New Microsoft Buildings in Paris

Under the category of cool things that you can accomplish with our very own Virtual Earth - 3DVIA 3D modeling application and Microsoft Virtual Earth, the above fly through was built for a presentation of the proposed Eos Generali building in the heart of the Paris business district.  We worked closely with several groups to produce the video including our old friends from Earthware (a.k.a. siege103 on 3DVIA.com) who produced many of the buildings that you see in the presentation.

Although you may not have the 3D modeling talent of Chris (Earthware) or Marc (3DVIA), you can produce the same concept on Virtual Earth today.  Everything you see above was produced through applications that are freely available right now.  The buildings were modeled with the Virtual Earth - 3DVIA version of our free Shape 3D modeling application and the "fly through" capability comes standard with Virtual Earth.  Marc has already promised a tutorial on how to produce your own that will be posted here soon.

The video was posted earlier on several sites including the Virtual Earth / Live Maps and Earthware blogs.  I like Michael’s second comment on the VE / Live Map blog…"It almost looks just like 2nd Life! I couldn’t help but notice that. It would be interesting to have a sort of 2nd Life in Virtual Earth. Where it takes place in more realistic setting and realistic people, don’t you? That would be neat." 

Interesting, don’t you think?

Popularity: 48% [?]